


Our Valentine

by VirginiasWolf



Series: Life Moves On [21]
Category: Death in Paradise
Genre: And Then They Do a Puzzle, And Watch a Movie That Technically Shouldn't Exist In the DiP Universe, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, First Camille Cooks in Only an Apron, Then Richard Cooks While Fully Clothed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-14 06:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20595959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirginiasWolf/pseuds/VirginiasWolf
Summary: It's Richard and Camille's first Valentine's Day as a married couple, and when they both have the day off work Camille is determined to make it as stereotypical as possible in the best way. Richard for his part is unexpectedly spontaneous.Part of the Life Moves On series but doesn't really involve any information from previous fics.





	Our Valentine

It's actually not just their first Valentine's Day married, but their first Valentine's Day as any sort of couple. Maybe they had rushed into marriage too quickly. No, she decides, they hadn't. Maybe if they were both college students who caught a first glimpse of each other in a freshman class and then promptly decided they were soulmates, marriage would have been a stupid decision, especially with how different they are as people. They aren't impulsive kids though. They're both middle-aged adults with no illusions about each other, and they shouldn't deny what they want just because society generally frowns upon marriage so soon after starting a romantic relationship.

  
Because Camille knows the character of her husband, she has zero belief that Richard has planned something special for them. In the past, she'd notice that he'd mainly use the day as an excuse to be able to buy cheaper candy the next day. However, neither of them are on work rotation today, and she's determined that they will do something even if she has to orchestrate it herself.

  
Watching Richard lying still asleep in bed she comes up with the idea to surprise him by making breakfast while only wearing an apron. Here's to hoping the neighbors don't choose to be snoopy today. This hope especially extends to Mrs. Miller, the next-door neighbor who seems aware that her husband has a wandering eye but has chosen to take her rage out on any remotely attractive female neighbors instead of the man himself. The only other problem is that it is also February in London and the ground outside is coated in a layer of snow, but at least the kitchen seems to be one of the warmer rooms of the flat.

  
To make sure Richard also wakes up in a timely manner she finds a French radio station which she blasts through the flat, singing along with the lyrics as she cooks.

  
After several minutes he stumbles down the stairs looking briefly disgruntled.

  
"Good morning, mon amour," Camille greets him cheekily and he takes in her state of undress for a second before seeming to remember what day it is, at which point a wide smirk appears on his lips.

  
As he steps up behind her he places a hand on her bare ass and squeezes it before snaking the hand between her legs. He knows exactly how weak that particular touch makes her, and she hates that she has to pull away.

  
"Not until we've both finished breakfast. We're going to need lots of energy for what I have planned."

  
When she turns around he almost seems to be pouting and she can't resist kissing him, an act which he takes advantage of by teasing her lips apart and slipping his tongue into her mouth. They stand in the kitchen kissing for several minutes before he attempts to reach for the string on the back of her apron to untie it. Maybe a little fun before breakfast won't be such a bad thing she decides. After all, the stove is already turned off and they're not quite at the age where they won't still feel like doing even more up in the bedroom after they finally eat breakfast.

  
There is still one particular issue though. "Close the curtains first."

  
"Right. Of course." He pulls away from her and goes over to the window.

  
Once he returns to her she finally allows him to remove the apron and they carefully back towards the kitchen island where he manages to lift her into a sitting position on top of the counter. Without breaking eye contact with him she unbuttons the front of his pajamas so that she can feel his bare chest and also pulls his pajama bottoms down enough to expose him.

  
Richard kisses her fully on the mouth again and almost immediately begins to thrust inside of her. Soon, his lips leave hers and he instead begins to kiss at her neck. She knows from past experience that this means he wants to hear her unmuffled moans and she's glad to oblige him. The intercourse is hurried yet passionate and although the shared orgasm is fabulous she almost feels like it all comes to an end far too soon leaving her the one who suddenly wishes they could just skip breakfast.

  
"Richard, can we just..." she starts to blurt out, but he places a shushing finger on her lips before she can fully get out her request.

  
"Tsk. Tsk. Camille, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It would hardly be proper to skip it. Besides, I seem to recall somebody saying that we both needed lots of energy for what she had planned."

  
Breakfast proves to be a smart decision as the rest of the morning ends up being filled with several more rounds of rather passionate sex and by the end of it all Camille finds herself completely sore and utterly exhausted, but also absolutely content. For a while, she lies stretched out in Richard's arms just basking in the afterglow of it all until she feels him shift and move to get out of bed.

  
She's so exhausted that she can barely lift her head, but when he steps around the bed and into her line of sight he is wearing one of those expressions that seem to signify that he's had some sort of mental breakthrough.

  
"Honey, what are you doing?" she can't help but ask as she realizes he seems to be getting dressed.

  
"You stay right exactly where you are. I need to make a trip to the grocery store." With that, he leans down to kiss her and is out the bedroom door before she can ask any further questions.

  
Camille remains lying in bed trying to figure out exactly what he may be up to, but eventually, she manages to doze off until movement downstairs and a strangely familiar smell causes her to awaken again.

  
Carefully she slips on her undergarments and a robe before making her way downstairs. She finds Richard at the same kitchen island where they had engaged in their first round of morning sex. This time he has a stockpot and several ingredients spread out before him and is so caught up in some form of handwritten book that he doesn't initially notice her, which gives her time to decipher what he is up to. None of these ingredients are typical London staples, although she does recognize every one of them. They're all things that she'd grown used to seeing in her mother's kitchen back on Saint Marie, and the little book he's reading seems to actually be a recipe book, written in her mother's handwriting.

  
Suddenly she finds herself choked for words when she further realizes that these ingredients aren't things he normally eats. However, they are exactly what is used in one of her favorite comfort soups. They couldn't have been easy to find in London in the dead of winter, and yet he'd apparently made a point to do so, all for her.

  
Richard finally notices her presence. "This all cost a small fortune so I can hardly be expected to make meals like this on a regular basis." It almost sounds like he's being rude and dismissive of her, but she knows it's all his way to hide that he doesn't quite know how to respond to being caught doing something so sentimental.

  
"I understand. Is there anything I can do to help?"

  
Richard shakes his head in response. "You can sit on that stool and observe...without talking."

  
At this, Camille can't help but break into a wide smile. He's trying so hard to be the romantic all while constantly managing to terrify himself into backing off at the last moment, and it's really very cute, especially since this is about the most sentimental and romantic she can expect him to be.

  
Or at least she thinks it is until he adds, "It would hardly qualify as a thank you dinner if I forced you to help prepare it."

  
"A thank you for what we did this morning?" she asks, still smiling and quirking an eyebrow at him.

  
Except teasing him stops being funny when he clarifies his statement. "For everything. I know marrying me couldn't have been a decision you made easily, but I'm eternally grateful that it is the one you made."

  
Now, instead of trying to come back with some witty remark, she finds herself responding. "Oh Richard, it was the easiest decision I've ever made," and she knows that she absolutely means it.

  
She still desperately wishes she could make him fully see himself the way she does, but there's so much anxiety and doubt to untangle from the poor man's mind that all she can really do is chip at his wall little by little all while caring for his tender, broken parts.

  
At least she does enjoy watching him cook though. Despite presenting himself as shy and introverted he really does like to talk, especially when he's doing an activity. She'd realized quickly that this wasn't a new habit of his, but he'd clearly been more used to speaking to pet lizards or inanimate objects than he had been to actual human beings. In the earliest days, there had been moments where he would ask her to hand him an object or ask a question and then look briefly shocked when he'd actually receive an answer. Like many behaviors of his that were clearly adapted to combat his lifetime of loneliness, it had both warmed and broken her.

  
Despite him having previously insisted that she must watch him quietly they easily break into a familiar conversation as he works. She tells him about comforting memories surrounding this particular dish, all while knowing that today will definitely become one of them, and he comes back with facts about the histories of the various ingredients which she makes a point of showing her interest in. Even if much of this information isn't exactly useful, she wants to encourage his passion.

  
However, as the soup becomes closer to being finished and only the cleanup is left, Richard makes a point of banishing her to the living room. Apparently he refuses to run the risk of her doing any of the work involved with the preparation. She doesn't mind though, because it gives her time to prepare another surprise for him. Or Perhaps surprise isn't the right word, it's an activity. Not exactly a romantic one, but she figures that since he's made a point of doing something that comforts her, she also wants to do something that comforts him.

  
In the back of a cabinet, she finds a one-thousand piece puzzle that he hasn't put together in a while. It seems to be of some sort of idillyic English pastoral scene. By the time he comes into the room with a single bowl of soup, she has laid the pieces out on the coffee table.

  
"Camille, what are you doing?" He isn't exactly used to seeing her doing puzzles, not because she doesn't like doing them, but because she generally doesn't like doing them alone. She has tried, but for her, part of the fun is having someone else to share the joy with when the pieces fall into place. Just like with solving a case.

  
"I thought perhaps we could put this together while we ate. Why aren't you eating?" She knows exactly why. As far as she knows he's never tried this particular dish before, and she knows he's afraid he'll hate it and she'll get mad. It isn't something she'd consider spicy though, even by English standards so she isn't letting him off the hook so easily, not to mention how it doesn't look very good if he won't eat his own cooking.

  
"I uhh, I just thought I'd..." he falters.

  
Camille stands up and walks over to greet him before carefully lifting the spoon out of the bowl. "One bite. Just to find out if you really dislike it as much as you assume you do." She teases the spoon at his lips watching as he involuntarily shudders before tentatively opening his lips and allowing her to feed him.

  
His eyes drift closed for a second and she watches as he tests the soup before swallowing. "Hmm. You know that isn't nearly as awful as I assumed it would be."

  
She decides she'll ignore the potential insult to her mother's recipes. "Good. Now you are going to march back into the kitchen and fix yourself a bowl and then we are going to spend the afternoon putting together this puzzle."

  
By the time the last piece is put into place, it is early evening and the couple slips into the shower before changing into clean pajamas.

  
At this point, Camille decides that it hardly qualifies as a full Valentines Day if they don't end it by watching a romantic movie, although of course there is an opportunity to tease Richard by picking a French film that is an anthology of several short love stories all taking place in Paris.

  
Initially, she thinks he's going to declare that she has absolutely gone too far with this, but after she agrees to turn on the English subtitles he finally sighs and relents.

  
Soon, a blanket is wrapped around them both and she is curled up against him as the movie plays, and she finally does allow one negative thought to cross her mind. There's no way any of their future Valentine's Days will be able to live up to the perfection of this one

**Author's Note:**

> BTW the film I was trying to imply they were watching is Paris, je t'aime which I have not yet seen but have heard very good things about and have actually purchased a copy so I can watch it subtitled since like Richard I am not very good at French. However, by watching it they are technically breaking the fourth wall because Sara Martins appears in it.


End file.
